Private Prisons Pros And Cons

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Private Prisons: A Poor Choice for the United States The United States currently houses over 2.4 million prisoners – more than any other country in the world. Since caring for each of these inmates costs between $20,000 and $50,000 per year, it is not a shock that the government is looking for ways to cut costs. However, the use of private prisons is not the solution to America’s problem. For-profit prisons may appear to save funds, but studies have found that they actually cost the taxpayers more money in several different areas. Additionally, they create problems regarding inmates receiving proper nutrition, safety, and health care. There are also several issues of morality, such as lobbying for legislature that increases prison rates, encouraging recidivism, and engaging in contracts that require minimum occupancy rates. There is no doubt that the combination of these practices will lower the quality of America’s prisons and should be illegal. The United States should discontinue the use of all private prisons.…show more content…
For the purposes of this argument, private vendors who are contracted to provide certain services (such as food or health care) at government run institutions will also be included in the discussion. In the United States, the first private prison was San Quentin, opened in 1852 in California. While San Quentin is currently state owned, there are over one hundred private prisons and jails housing over 133,000 inmates (Carson 13). The vast majority of these prisons are owned by two companies – Corrections Corporation of America (CCA) and The GEO Group. The entire American private prison industry earned over $5 billion dollars in 2011 alone (Taibbi

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